Trusses to support a convex roof are well known. Many such trusses are made of wood, and can span more than 100 feet in length. Wooden trusses are subject to rot, splitting, cracking, insect infestations, or other forms of age-related degradation. Additionally, the load placed on a wooden truss may exceed the original expected loading for the truss for a variety of reasons, including the addition of hoists, machinery such as heating, ventilating, and air conditioning equipment, or additional layers of exterior roofing materials. Existing trusses may require reinforcement for any of these or other reasons.
Known trusses generally have one or more top chords, which are subject to compression loading, and one or more bottom chords, which are subject to tension loading. The top and bottom chords are typically connected at a heel connection setting plate. One known way of reinforcing such a truss is to install additional top chords from end to end of the truss. At the heel connection, the new top chords were simply clamped to the setting plate. A problem with the known way to reinforce a truss is that clamping the top chord down to the setting plate did not prevent the top chord from sliding out.
The present invention provides for installing a reinforcing chord heel plate that engages the loading of the reinforcing top chords into the loading of the existing top chords, so both the old and new top chords work together.
The present invention for reinforcing a pre-existing truss provides for a reinforcing chord heel plate having a reinforcing truss bracket, apertures spaced to match bolt patterns from a top chord of the pre-existing truss, and a tie rod bracket.
The present invention also provides for a reinforced truss having a pre-existing top chord, a reinforcing top chord, a bottom chord, first and second reinforcing chord heel plates, each reinforcing chord heel plate having a reinforcing truss bracket, apertures spaced to match bolt patterns from a top chord of the pre-existing truss, and a tie rod bracket, the reinforcing top chord having a first end captured in the reinforcing truss bracket of the first reinforcing chord heel plate and a second end captured in the reinforcing truss bracket of the second reinforcing chord heel plate, and a tie rod connecting the first and second reinforcing heel plates.